Worcester rally spotlights teen's arrest

Public outcry over a city teenager's allegations of racial profiling led a few city councilors tonight to admit they could have done more, while police maintained profiling did not occur.

A rally at City Hall before tonight's council meeting pushed for the council to act in the case of David Russo, a 14-year-old Hammond Heights resident who believes he was racially profiled by police last summer, and that it escalated to a confrontation with Worcester Polytechnic Institute police.

Isabel Gonzalez-Webster, former aide to City Councilor-at-Large and then-Mayor Joseph C. O'Brien, helped organize the rally, and said tonight that she and Mr. O'Brien had tried unsuccessfully to set up a meeting with city officials before David was stopped by WPI police. Emails had circulated among Hammond Heights residents earlier that summer after houses had been broken into. In one email, speakers at the rally contended last night, a resident said a police officer told her to be on the lookout for black or Hispanic children in the neighborhood.

Speakers said that later in the summer a neighbor called police to report a suspicious person after he saw David going in and out of his own house on Metcalf Street. WPI police officers responded, and Worcester police arrested David after he hit one of the WPI officers.

In response to the WPI police incident, Mr. O'Brien filed a request in September asking the City Council what authority college police officers have in patrolling off-campus, and what authority they have to question non-students. That item was tabled until last night, when it was referred to City Manager Michael V. O'Brien for a report.

In a statement released tonight, Police Chief Gary J. Gemme said he could not comment on the case because of pending litigation, but “it was my decision based on the totality of the circumstances, that the complaint of racial profiling was not supported” in David Russo's case.

He said members of the Police Department met with community members in July to address activity in the neighborhood, and said that dialogue continues through the department's Community Impact Division.

“The department has not received any complaints of, or requests to discuss racial profiling since this arrest. If the mayor's office at the time felt that a meeting was necessary, they certainly had the ability and opportunity to hold one,” the chief said in the statement.

In an interview this afternoon, the chief said that in fact, the department receives very few complaints of racial profiling by officers.

Still, he said, he would never say racial profiling doesn't exist within communities. But in the course of all the outreach the department does with local clergy, community groups and neighborhood watch groups, “it's not an issue they're bringing to the table,” he noted.

The majority of complaints about officers have to do with how a particular individual was treated, or the level of force an officer used, the chief said.

Officers in the city are trained to be professional and to make decisions based on good police work, he said.

“What we do is we tend to focus on known individuals and violent offenders,” the chief said. “We focus on locations where a certain type of behavior takes place, we base our decisions on our observations, we don't base our decisions on a profile of a certain individual. Look at individuals committing breaks — it's across the spectrum of diversity. Look at armed robbery — it's the same situation.”

Several councilors weighed in on the issue tonight.

“We all could have done better,” Councilor O'Brien said, adding that as the father in an interracial family, he feels it is healthy to talk about these kinds of issues.

Manager O'Brien said that moving forward, meetings will be set up in the Hammond Heights neighborhood that will include a deputy police chief and members of the Worcester Clergy and Police Community Partnership and the city's Office of Human Rights.

Councilor-at-Large Kathleen M. Toomey said profiling should not be happening in the community.

“It's not OK that the ball was dropped,” she said.

After Hammond Heights resident Eric DeMeulenaere, who spoke at the rally outside, asked the council how residents should report concerns like this, District 3 City Councilor George Russell asked Manager O'Brien to elaborate.

Manager O'Brien said contact with his office would be a good start, and said the Human Rights Commission can generate reports and investigate. He echoed Councilor O'Brien's comments about not pushing the issue far enough.

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